Alien (1979 movie)
Alien is a 1979 horror film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O' Bannon and Ronald Shusett. It stars Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, and John Hurt. In the movie, a commercial deep space towing ship known as the USCSS Nostromo, investigating a suspected SOS, lands on a distant planet. The crew's investigation leads them to come into contact with some strange creatures which ultimately prove fatal for most of them. Alien was rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for violence, gore and bad language. Plot The film begins with a large spaceship, called the Nostromo, heading towards Earth, returning from collecting minerals from other planets. The ship carries seven crew members, namely Captain Dallas, Executive Officer Kane, Navigator Lambert, Science Officer Ash, engineers Parker and Brett, and Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley. Suddenly, the ship's computer (known as mother) detects a transmission on a nearby planet. The computer wakes up the crew, and they land on the planet. Dallas, Kane, and Lambert decide to search for the transmission, while the others remain on the ship. They soon track the transmission to a spacecraft. Kane notices a chamber filled with eggs. He touches it, and suddenly, a creature attacks him, and attaches to his face, causing Kane to fall unconscious. Dallas and Lambert carry him back. They ask Ripley to open the pod door for them, which Ripley refuses, as it can contaminate the entire ship and kill them all. However, Ash ignores her, and opens the door anyway. They try to remove the creature from Kane's face but are unable to. They soon discover that the creature bleeds acid and not blood. The creature soon removes itself from Kane's face on its own and dies. Kane wakes up fine and the crew decides to head back to Earth. That night, as the crew are having dinner, Kane begins to cough, and soon falls to the ground convulsing. Suddenly, an alien (which although it is unnamed in this film, later came to be called a Xenomorph) bursts out of Kane's chest, causing him to bleed to death. The alien then runs around the ship. The remaining crew members have to get rid of the alien. They decide to locate it by using motion trackers. However, the alien, which is now gigantic, unlike when it came out of Kane's chest, grabs Brett, and takes him into the airshaft, where it probably kills him. Dallas decides to follow the alien into the airshaft, and force it into the airlock. However, the alien manages to kill Dallas first. The remaining four crew members realize that the alien will kill them all soon if they do not do something fast. Lambert suggests that they escape on the emergeny space shuttle. However, Ripley tells her that the shuttle would not be able to support four people. She suggests that they use Dallas's idea of putting the alien into airlock. Ripley goes onto the ship's computer, but discovers that the ship has been ordered by Ash to return to Earth no matter what. Ripley confronts Ash, and she tells him that if they do not stop the ship, they might all die. Ash tells her that he has ordered the ship to continue, even if it is at the expense of the crew members' lives. He then begins to beat Ripley up, and nearly kills her, until Parker, and Lambert come to her rescue. Ash fights them too, until Parker accidentally decapitates him in self-defense. They realize that Ash is a cyborg, and he has been ordered to deliver the alien to Earth no matter what. He then tells the three remaining crew members that they will probably all die. Believing that the emergency escape shuttle will manage to hold three people, they set the ship to self-destruct and try to escape onn the shuttle. However, the alien manages to kill Lambert and Parker, leaving Ripley as the only survivor. Ripley quickly gets the crew's pet cat named Jones, and the two head out for the space shuttle. Although it is difficult for her to make it out, as the alien is blocking the way, she eventually manages to make her way to the space shuttle and launches herself as the Nostromo explodes. On the shuttle, Ripley is horrified to discover that the alien followed her onto it. She quickly puts on her space suit, and opens the hatch. The alien flies onto the open doorway. Ripley then shoots it with a grappling hook but the gun catches itself, and the alien, in the closing door. The alien decides to crawl into the ship engine. However, Ripley blasts on the engine, causing the alien to fly into deep space. The film ends with Ripley sending a transmission from her ship, saying she is the last survivor of the Nostromo. She then goes to sleep, hoping to be picked up by another ship. External links *''Alien'' on the Internet Movie Database. *[http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/alien Alien on Rotten Tomatoes.] *[http://www.allmovie.com/movie/alien-v1503 Alien on AllMovie.] *Xenomorph on Alien Species Wiki. Category:Movies